InfraGard: Partnerships Protecting America

InfraGard: Partnerships Protecting America

The nation’s power grids, nuclear facilities, and the Internet can be targets for terrorists, spies, and criminals.

Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The nation’s power grids, nuclear facilities, and the Internet can be targets for terrorists, spies, and criminals.

Robert E. Nickel: Most of the critical infrastructure and key resources actually belong to private sector. So, there has to be a cooperative effort between the government and the private sector to ensure that those things are kept safe.

Halpern: I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau, and you’re listening to FBI, This Week. One way the FBI protects and prevents attacks on America’s critical infrastructures and key resources is through InfraGard. The program is a partnership between the Bureau and the public in which information is exchanged. Robert Nickel is the unit chief of the Public/Private Alliance Unit…

Nickel: Really, it’s a two-way information flow.

Halpern: InfraGard has grown to about 40,000 members and 86 chapters nationwide since its creation in 1996. Members range from small business owners to major corporations and their security departments.

Nickel: There are threats that the FBI becomes aware of, InfraGard allows us to get that information to the right people in a very timely manner.